Archive for November, 2011

8 Healthier Ways To Get Your Holiday Eat On

Posted: November 20, 2011 by williampower in Behavior Modification, Nutrition
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Focus on:
• Portion control
• Optimum selection from a variety of food groups

8 Tips to help you through those holiday dinners:

*Drink a glass or two of water before eating or use soup as an appetizer (if available) to help you get fuller faster

*Use a smaller plate

*Cover most of your plate with salad and vegetables

*Aim for turkey as your primary meat due to its lean quality, but keep it under 5 or 6 ounces

*Chill out on the candied yams…

*Relax on the mash potatoes, typically a housing for insidious agents like butter, salt and cream

*Fat Free Eggnog

*Avoid over consuming alcohol, calories add up quicker when you drink them

-Ref. IDEA F.J. 2011

7 Ways To Curb Your Appetite

Posted: November 17, 2011 by williampower in Behavior Modification, Nutrition
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1. Keep a balanced blood sugar. Best ways to do this is to eat breakfast everyday, eat smaller meals throughout the day and avoid simple and refined carbohydrates.

2. Avoid artificial sweeteners. These products are made to circumvent sugar in the diet by giving food a sweet taste without causing insulin spikes. However, ironically, these products can be up to 60x sweeter than sugar which can activate the appetite centers of the brain coercing you to crave even more food and more sugar. It also expedites the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream when alcohol is consumed with beverages with artificial sweeteners in them.

3. Avoid emotional eating; sublimate your stress in a positive manner. Stress has been linked for years to obesity starting with the tendency of many to eat when emotionally frazzled or damaged. Consider exercise as a stress reliever, it will relieve your stress by causing your body to release “feel good” endorphin hormones as well as benefitting you in several other ways.

4. Outsmart yourself. You know yourself better than anyone; therefore, you are the best candidate to put yourself in a position to be successful. Identify your environmental triggers that cause your to eat poorly and either eradicate them or avoid them. For example, if you and your friends are going out to eat and you know how you get when you are hungry, eat before you go out. You don’t have to eat a whole meal, but a snack would help greatly to control that appetite. It’s a lot easier to make healthier decisions with food when you aren’t starving.

5. Use Will Power ☺ Make it a habit to say no to things that hurt your progression. Over time this will become easier and easier.

6. Move your ass. As mentioned earlier, exercise helps to defer obese tendencies. It also improves the way the body uses sugar, handles stress, and makes choices.

7. Get your 6-8 every night. Science has already shown evidence that less sleep increases the likelihood of weight gain and increases the amount of cravings you will have throughout the day.

Ref: IDEA F.J.

Killing ANTS To Lose Weight

Posted: November 15, 2011 by williampower in Behavior Modification
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(A)utomatic (N)egative (T)houghts (ANT’S) are negative thoughts that can affect our progress toward any goal we may strive for. At some point in all our lives we’ve experienced at least one of these poor ways of thinking. However, some of us have found ways to quell these detrimental trains of thought. For those who haven’t, the best way to do this is to recognize these trains of thought and then derail them. Below are the 10 most common derogatory thoughts that lead to failure:

1. All or nothing. Ex: “I just ate a doughnut, I might as well give up on my diet.” Stop it. We’ve all fallen off the bandwagon at some point on a journey to get to some goal. The trick is, when u fall off, don’t dwell on it, don’t excuse it but don’t dwell on it either. Recognize your mistake and realize what led you to make that mistake. Train yourself to avoid making that same mistake then hop right back on the wagon where you fell off.

2. “Always” thinking a.k.a. overgeneralizing. Ex: “I have always been fat and that won’t change no matter what I do.” Stop it. Remember, often times it’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not.

3. Thinking with your feelings. Ex: “I feel like a loser so I must be one.” Wow…wait for it…wait for it…yea…STOP IT! There’s an old adage that goes, “hell would be you, right after death, meeting the person you could have become if only you had believed in yourself.” Enough said.

4. Focusing on the negative. Ex: I lost 10lbs but I was aiming for 15. I’m a complete failure.” Really though? Stop it…stop it now! It has been scientifically proven that often times positive attitudes breed positive outcomes.

5. Guilt beating. Ex: “I don’t go to the gym enough. I’m a lazy bum.” If you really feel that way then do something about it. You’re probably going to say “that’s easier said than done” and you’d be right. But then again…isn’t everything easier said than actually done?! At this point, there’s nothing left to do but to take whatever steps necessary to get to where you know you need to be. Rest assured, if you don’t care about your ass…no one else will…(pun intended).

6. Labeling. Ex: “I’m a slob.” “Labeling” a problem is as effective as telling a cut to stop bleeding. Good luck with that…

7. Fortune telling. Ex: “This might work for a few months but it wont work in the long run.” Frankly put, if you could tell the future you would have never gained the weight you are trying to lose in the 1st place! Need I say more?

8. Mind reading. Ex. “other people think I’m stupid”. It would be stupid to assume you always know what other people are thinking about you.

9. Blame game. Ex: “its your fault I gained weight because you’re the one who exposed me to all this food.” Unless that sentence ends in, ” and you threatened to kill (insert family member name here) if I didn’t eat it!” then stop it. Accept responsibility for your choices and actions and work on making better choices and more auspicious actions.

10. Denial. Ex: “I only eat bad when I’m stressed, not everyday. I’m not that bad.” That’s like saying, “I only steal when I’m bored, I’m not that bad, you act like I’m a thief!” (O_o)

Research shows that managing these negative thoughts can have a significant impact on weight loss. In order to get your body right you have to mind right. Just food for thought…let’s see how long it takes to process…

10 Myths about Strength Training

Posted: November 13, 2011 by williampower in Behavior Modification, Exercise, Myth Busting
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A lot of people are afraid of strength training because of the influx of misconceptions that are so abundant in the world on non avid workout enthusiasts. The fact of the matter is strength training benefits everyone no matter what age or gender. So to make it less of a fear invoking past time, I’m going to dispel a few misconceptions that plague the minds of those who aren’t in the know.

Crap Fact #1: Strength training will bulk you up, and women who strength train will lose their feminine appearance if they do it. This is probably the most traduce statement about strength training. Saying strength training will bulk you up is like saying studying physics will make you Einstein. Yeeeaaaaa…doubt it.
Real Fact: Strength training will make you stronger. It doesn’t give you bulky, masculine-looking muscles unless you have a lot of testosterone circulating in your blood. The amount of time, food and discipline it takes to get huge from weights is almost a full-time job (trust me) and sometimes it’s influenced by illegal substances. Unless a woman is using anabolic steroids, she will not develop bulky muscles; she will develop strong muscles.

Crap Fact #2: “No pain, no gain”
Real Fact: Some localized muscular soreness that dissipates over a couple days can indicate that you worked hard. However, in the grand scheme of things, a sign of a good workout is results, not soreness. Therefore, your goal should be results, not post exercise pain.

Crap Fact #3: Strength training doesn’t help with weight loss.
Real Fact: Although strength training doesn’t burn fat like aerobic exercise does, it certainly does help with weight loss. As your muscles get stronger, denser and work more efficiently, your resting metabolic rate increases. Which means that you burn more fat, even when you’re not exercising #winning

Crap Fact #4: Kids can’t do strength training because it will stunt their growth.
Real Fact: Age-appropriate strength training is recommended for kids to help them develop strong muscles and bones and avoid obesity, which is so prevalent among so many children now a days. It does not stunt their growth.

Crap Fact #5: Old people shouldn’t strength train.
Real Fact: Strength training helps older people maintain muscle strength and bone density as well as helping them maintain balance, and preventing falls.

Crap Fact #6: Working out on an empty stomach burns the most calories.
Real Fact: No it doesn’t. Stop it.

Crap Fact #7: If I want to look like my favorite celebrity than I should mimic their workout.
Real Fact: Trying to look like someone else is futile unless you are his or her identical twin. Put your energy into perfecting YOUR body and its mechanics. Envy will do nothing for you but produce negative energy. However, inspiration is clutch for motivation. So it’s not a problem using athletes and celebs as fuel, just make sure your goals are personal.

Crap Fact #8: Master Cleansers are healthy.
Real Fact: No! They aren’t! Science and history has shown us time and time again that our liver and kidneys are more than sufficient enough to detoxify our body of any toxins or pollutants that we may have ingested. In my experience, people who do master cleanses typically end up worse of than they started. Leave the short cuts alone. Stay consistent, stay true and work hard and you will see that hard work pays off.

Crap Fact #9: Cutting carbs will make me lean.
Real Fact: No, it will make you mean, weak and irritable. Carbs are the body’s most efficient energy provider and without it your body is merely compensating to survive. Eventually the sacrifices of that compensation are going to catch up to you and it wont be pretty. Consume more fruits, veggies and legumes and weight gain from carbs will be a minimal issue.

Crap Fact #10: I have to train for hours on end to get results.
Real Fact: No you don’t, not at all. It depends on the intensity of the exercise you are doing. If (hypothetically speaking) running for 20 mins burns 200 cals and walking for 50 min burns 200 cals and I’m on a timetable…which choice is the best choice? Need I say more? Step your game up…

5 Quick Reasons To Work Your Abs

Posted: November 9, 2011 by williampower in Exercise
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1. Improve athletic performance. Abdominal muscles play a pivotal role in all physical activities where you need to run fast or twist your torso.

2. Protect the spinal column and support the spine. Weak abdominal muscles and excess belly fat (adding weight to the front of your body) put your intervertebral discs in a very precarious position, increasing the risks for slipped discs and lumbar degeneration.

3. To relax tense muscles. For a number of people, during the night hours, the lumbar muscles can stay tense reflecting a long day of compression. That means upon wakening one often arises tired and with slight to moderate back pain. This is a sign that during sleep your spine did not relax and recuperate properly. A few minutes of core exercises before bed can aid in relaxing the lumbar muscles and releasing the pressure it is subjected to throughout the day.

4. Reduce the likelihood of several metabolic diseases like Type 2 Diabetes. Most of these diseases can be linked to excess belly fat.

5. Augmenting digestion. Efficient abdominal muscles help facilitate digestion helping to prevent constipation and bloating.

WillGetYouFit’s #HardWorkPaysOff Volume 2

Posted: November 4, 2011 by williampower in #HARDWORKPAYSOFF, Exercise, Videos
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Introducing Tamar Adams and Brian Hutchinson, 2 of #TeamHardWorkPaysOff’s “starting 5” and 2 men that understand that #Hardworkpaysoff…”Success doesn’t come to you, you go to it…”

“Pouring on the Pounds” (If You Knew Better You’d Do Better)

Posted: November 2, 2011 by williampower in Behavior Modification, Myth Busting, Nutrition, Videos
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By now you may have seen several ads throughout the Public Transportation system vilifying sugar, and rightfully so. Sugar is one of the biggest reasons why Americans are the fattest people on the planet. There is an excessive amount of sugar in processed foods and the average American has a diet that is 90% processed. To add insult to injury, Americans have the audacity (albeit unbeknownst to some) to drink sugar laden drinks throughout the day that are more concentrated with sugar than the processed foods they eat! Well the NYC Board of Health is doing what it can to get the word out and let people know that those sugar drinks are quite possibly the biggest reason why your waistlines are expanding.

These ads, now being placed throughout the city, are a push by the Department of Health to educate New Yorkers on the dangers of sugary drinks and to draw attention to the insidious dangers that accompany drinking your calories.

Those in particular danger are todays youth who are adding to the obesity epidemic at an alarming rate. There is absolutely no excuse for children to be developing ADULT Onset Diabetes in their preteens, not 1! Kids dont know any better…adults, parents, whoever you are its time to open your eyes. I preach this all the time, if you knew better you’d do better…hopefully I’m right…

^^That right there is just nasty man^^ #stopit